West Midlands Police and the region’s seven councils unveiled a new framework for tackling CSE last week and revealed 720 children in the region were currently at risk of sexual exploitation.

Each authority had been asked to categorise all of its CSE cases into three ‘risk-rating’ groups;

*Those at ‘serious risk of harm’ – a child being sexually exploited;

*Those at ‘significant risk’ – a target for exploitation;

*Those ‘at risk’ – in danger of being groomed for exploitation.

In Birmingham the number of potential CSE victims identified by April was 380, made up of 308 girls and 72 boys and ranging in age from 11 to 18.

But a report showed only 79 of the 380 children deemed at risk had been officially ‘risk-rated’ after being assessed through the MASE (multi agency sexual exploitation) programme.

MASE was set up last year by the city council, police and other agencies in a bid to better identify help and support for victims of grooming gangs and other online predators.

The document revealed that 301 youngsters were still awaiting a full ‘risk-rating’.

Of the 79 youngsters who had been assessed, 25 were rated at ‘serious risk’ of harm, 37 at ‘significant risk’ and 17 ‘at risk’.

The Mail put a series of questions to the city council over the reasons for the worrying backlog.

The authority said that, of the 301 children yet to be risk-rated, 206 had been assessed for vulnerability – understood not to include CSE – by a social worker, with the rest ‘subject to social work activity’.

The council added that 206 youngsters had an assigned social worker and an action plan in place, with the remainder deemed ‘not requiring intervention’.

Yet the Mail understands part of the backlog is because the council has had a shortage of social workers trained to properly identify signs of CSE.

Sources also claimed there had been a lack of leadership over tackling the issue.

However, the authority said many of the 301 cases were identified because of ‘heightened awareness’ among staff and other partners.

A spokeswoman said: “The number of young people who have had a risk rating confirmed is the figure that is comparable with the numbers declared by neighbouring authorities.

“The social workers engaged with these young people are working with a multi-agency group to support the young people and look at ways of disrupting perpetrators.

“However, such is the heightened awareness of this issue among our staff and partners that we wanted to look beyond these figures and have therefore included a number of young people where CSE may be a factor, among other vulnerabilities.

“All these young people have had an initial assessment by a social worker and where needs have been identified they have an ongoing plan of support.

“If it becomes evident they are at risk of CSE they will be risk rated.”

It was only in March that Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw demanded that Birmingham’s ‘inadequate’ rated children’s services department should do more to support vulnerable youngsters.

He spoke out as the watchdog published an annual report into children’s social care which revealed Birmingham’s department was among seven across England and Wales rated inadequate.

Yet the missing Birmingham risk-ratings in the new West Midlands-wide CSE framework report indicates the city is still struggling to turn around its children’s services – previously branded “a national disgrace” by the government.

The backlog is sure to be a concern for Gary Billing, assistant director of safeguarding at Birmingham City Council.

The former West Midlands Police chief inspector has been tasked with tackling CSE and earns between £76,950 and £90,000 per year.

His boss, Alastair Gibbons, earns between £117,000 and £138,135 for his role as executive director of children’s services.

The new framework was drawn up over 18 months by the seven councils across the region, plus West Midlands Police and health professionals.

Only Sandwell and Birmingham failed to carry out risk-ratings for all of children identified as at potential risk of CSE.

Sandwell had just six yet to be assessed and risk-rated from 100 cases.

West Midlands Police assistant chief constable Carl Foulkes said: “It is important to remember that we are in the early stages of a significant journey

“WMP has considered data from across WMP intelligence systems to highlight any child, offender or location where we consider there may be a risk of child sexual exploitation.

“We are in the process of sharing and comparing our intelligence with our partners’ data.

“This is sharing information about children, offenders and locations with the objective to ensure there is a joined-up approach and a joint risk assessment – considering information from all agencies.

“Information is being shared with specially-trained staff from police, social care, health and third sector organisations such as Barnardo’s in a process which assesses and appropriately manages the risk to children and looks at the investigative opportunities to bring offenders to justice or intervention where possible."